Floppy Drive Help

[Turambar]

hi im new and im having some trouble with my floppy drive. k i just finished building a computer and i just got a new hard drive and when i turn on my comp and try to use a boot disk the floppy drive light just stays on. i have checked the connections and cables and everything is correct. does anyone have any suggestions that could help?

[Nebulous]

if the floppy drive stays on, something is wrong with :

A) the floppy ribbon
B) Bent pin in the back of the floppy.


1) exchange the ribbon
2) check the back part of the floppy where the ribbon is connected and check for bent pins.

Oh, btw, Welcome to Icrontic :D

[Turambar]

alrite thanks alot i will try that first thing tomorrow

[Nebulous]

;)

[Zuntar]

Triple check that your floppy cable is attatched to the floppy drive correctly!! The red line on the cable translates to pin #1 on the drive and the mobo.
If you are using an old floppy drive or an old cable the "locator/ key" may not be right. Pin 1 to pin 1, no matter what! :)

[versello]

Flip the floppy ribbon around (whether on the motherboard (unless it's keyed) or the floppy itself).

99% of the time I always install floppy ribbons upside down... d'oh!

[HalOfBorg]

Having the light on the floppy drive stay on all the time is caused by the cable being in backwards. Reverse either end.

[versello]

Upside-down will do ;)

[Turambar]

thanks versello i flipped it and its working now but i still cant boot into dos :(

[Nebulous]

ok, the floppy drive works, but you can't boot into Dos? You make a new boot up disk?

[timinator]

i hate floppy drives

[Zuntar]

AMEN Brother!!!!

[versello]

amen to that too :D

[drowd]

seriously, floppy drives are worthless. has anyone successfully made a dos boot disk from a cd-rom. i think i tried to just put the contents of a boot disk and burning it to a cd-rom, and if i remember correctly, it didnt werk correctly. anyone know anything about this?

[Nebulous]

I only use my floppy drive for flashing the bios :D

[Turambar]

im all good i made a xp boot disk and im all set. One more question though im probably going to get some more memory soon to move up to 1GB but right now i have 2 sticks of 128MB at 266Mhz and 1 stick of 256MB at 266Mhz. If i buy a stick of 512MB at 400Mhz will it work or should i just get another 266Mhz stick?

[Nebulous]

Any faster ram you buy will run at slower speed because of the 266 in there now ;)

Congrats on solving your problem.

[Turambar]

ok thanks but it will still work properly?

[Nebulous]

Originally posted by Turambar
ok thanks but it will still work properly?

sure it'll run, but like i isaid, it'll run @ 266, not 400.

[Zuntar]

It's that "weakest link in the chain" thing.

[Nebulous]

Originally posted by Zuntar
It's that "weakest link in the chain" thing.

I cuncur.

[Turambar]

alright thanks for you help guys